The Malay dwelling (MD) in Melaka demonstrated the Malay cultural norms, religious beliefs and the basic requirements of privacy in Islam. Privacy needs of the family members and the non-mahram visitor is determinant for designing the space planning in MD. Different types of dwelling size were selected in order to investigate the concept of privacy. Research methodology was designed on occupant observation, layout plan measurement and in-depth interviews. The results affect the privacy provisions and behaviors of MD occupants. Moreover, these findings assist to produce new design recommendations of layout plans, to achieve the privacy level from Islamic perspective.Keywords: Privacy; Malay dwelling; floor space planning; Islamic perspectives of privacyeISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v3i11.111